The Sky’s Greatest Show

Once upon a time-so the story goes-an explorer was captured by a tribe of natives in the jungle. The jungle people had no books or television or radio. They didn’t even know that there was anything different in the world from the trees and the vines and the muddy rivers of the jungle. They were afraid of the explorer and so they locked him up in a wooden cage.

“Let me out,” the explorer said,” or I’ll make the sun go away. Right here in the middle of the day I’ll make something in the sky eat up your sun.” The jungle people didn’t believe him. They laughed and poked sticks at him through the bars of the cage.

“All right,” he said,” you’ll see. My magic is strong. Now I’ll make the sun go away in the middle of the day. And the sun did go away! At least it seemed to. Something seemed to eat up the sun a little at a time until it was all gone and the day was as dark as midnight.

The jungle people moaned and cried. They were very much afraid of this explorer whose magic was strong enough to take their sun away. “Make the sun come back,” they cried,” and we’ll do anything you say. We’ll set you free and give you food and great treasure.

“All right,” the explorer said,” I’ll make the sun come back.” And the sun did come back after a little while. Do you know why it “went away” in the first place? And it “come back”?

It really can turn as dark as night-right in the middle of the day. This happens when the sun is eclipsed by the moon. Eclipse means to hide something by coming in front it. You know that the moon goes around the Earth. And the Earth and Moon together so around the sun. Once in a while as they all move, the moon gets between the sun and the Earth. That stops the sun’s light from reaching part of the Earth. It gets dark in a daytime and we say that there is an eclipse of the sun.

Scientist who study the sky can tell when these eclipses will happen. The explorer in our story knew there would be an eclipse. So he pretended to the jungle people that he made it happen. When the moon comes between the sun and the Earth, the sun looks thinner and thinner until almost as if somebody flicked off a light switch-the day becomes as dark as night. Even the animals are fooled. Birds stop singing and hens go clucking to their roasts, thinking it is time to sleep.

Eclipses of the moon also happen but in a different way. When the Earth gets in front of the sun it throws a long black shadow over the moon. But some sunlight ‘leaks’ through to the moon; so it never turns black, only a dull coppery color. Eclipses of the sun or the moon don’t happen often. The next time the sun eclipsed where you live and it suddenly gets dark, don’t be fooled and go to bed in the middle of the day like the chickens.